Foster Price: Pre-drilling for an Oversized Pole

As we made it to Foster Price’s property in the heart of Southland, we couldn’t help but notice the RHINO post and rail fencing that welcomed us on the way in. Foster and his wife, Shelley, are currently in the process of building their house for retirement which they are hoping to have completed by the end of this year.

Moving to Southland 40 years ago for greater opportunities, Foster and Shelley brought up their three children in Invercargill and have enjoyed building a life there. Shelley works as a nurse at Southern Cross and two of their children live locally; their daughter is a schoolteacher based in Clinton and their son is at the local Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) studying engineering. Their other son works in Australia as an aluminium smelter worker. Foster is originally from Rai Valley in Marlborough, where his family have farmed for five generations.

Before Foster went out fencing, he worked in business and community development for a local economic development agency for 30 years. One of his roles was to promote Southland to the rest of New Zealand, with a strong focus and passion for seeing communities get ahead. Foster has been fencing on his own for six years, mostly working around the city and on lifestyle blocks: primarily post and rail and sheep netting fencing.

It’s been smooth sailing for Foster who has been working on the pile foundation for their new house. He got consent approved rather quickly with the floor having arrived in March and the builders getting straight to business after that.

“We wanted to build a house for our retirement that’s as resilient as possible in current circumstances. Lots of areas are subject to liquefaction and we’d like to ensure that if there was a big earthquake, we can continue to live in our house if possible. So, we’ve chosen wooden piles and laminated wooden floors as a means of achieving that,” Foster said.

Goldpine Invercargill supplied Foster with piles for the house and deck, along with SG8 structural timber for the deck frame. The back wall will be built with Goldpine timber and poles.

“Wood is resilient in a big shake and it has a lower carbon footprint. It ticks a lot of boxes for the good of the planet, not that we’re particularly into that, but it’s good to do these things that are the right thing to do,” Foster explained.

We’re looking forward to seeing the final stages of Foster’s new home constructed with Goldpine timber products.